WTAM Local News

Court sides with hospital over Amish girl's cancer treatment

(Akron) — An appeals court in Ohio has sided with Akron Children's Hospital, which is seeking to force a 10-year-old Amish girl to resume chemotherapy after her parents decided to stop the treatments.

The decision issued Tuesday sends the case back to a Medina County judge and says he must give more consideration to the request by Akron Children's Hospital. The judge had ruled in July that the parents had the right to make medical decisions for their daughter.

The hospital wants a registered nurse to take over limited guardianship and make medical decisions for the girl. The hospital says the girl will die without chemotherapy.

The girl's parents say that the chemotherapy's effects were terrible and she begged them to stop it and they agreed after a great deal of prayer. The family, members of an insular Amish community, shuns many facets of modern life and is deeply religious.